Good morning 👋
Just a friendly reminder that it’s Valentine’s Day. If you haven’t gotten her something yet, you still have time.
Switching gears.
We’re breaking down the different levels of talent after reading Shaan Puri’s latest post.
Let’s get into it.
Today’s highlights
Talent levels
Tusk Ventures is done with traditional VC
Sequoia is rumored to lead Mercury’s massive round
How LPs make decisions
TOP
which worker are you? 🤷♂️
Shaan Puri wrote this piece last week, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot since I saw it.
Talent, like most things in life, follows a distribution curve.
Some are bad
Most are okay
A few are exceptional
Most managers spend 90% of their time “managing” the left and middle of the image above when 90% of the output comes from the right side employees.
The lesson? Be a right side employee.
How? Think about it like this:
Level 1 employee: Useless
Level 2 employee: Task monkey; they will do it but only after you show them how to do it
Level 3 employee: Problem solver; tell them what to do, and they figure how to get it done
Level 4 employee: They figure out systems to solve problems (people + process)
Level 5 employee: Identify the right problem and get it solved
So the real question becomes:
Are you identifying the A+ problem on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis?
GP / LP Mastermind
The “anti-conference” for fund managers 🌴
We don’t like conferences, so we created our own version that we would actually look forward to going to.
Small group of 6-10 LPs, GPs, and partners
Golf and padel
Boat charter
Private dinners
No outside sponsors
We only have space for 6-10, and applications close next month.
If you’re interested, we’d recommend letting us know sooner rather than later …
LINKS
🪄 Pulling Back the Curtain on the Magic of Y Combinator: What makes Y Combinator (YC) the most successful startup accelerator in the world?
🧐 The Fund of Funds Fallacy—Why LPs Need to Rethink Their VC Strategy: Pattern Ventures debunks the myths associated with FoFs, and lists the benefits such as superior access and risk-adjusted returns as well as practical advantages for the LPs
🧰 Here’s How I Operate a $6M/Year Coaching Business: Dickie Bush shares a full breakdown via video of his company’s “operating system” complete with KPIs, department structures, org charts, and prioritization frameworks
📈 A Masterclass with the Michael Jordan of B2C Subscription—Run the Numbers: Learning VC interviews Reid Tandy, former Hulu, Crunchyroll, HBO Max, and Substack growth PM, who gives his key insights on price increases
👀 How AI Changes Customer Acquisition: Digital Native explains that a sea change is occurring in customer acquisition—from AI automation for rote tasks, to synthetic ads, to “bidding for keywords” now optimizing placement in AI search and will catch ad-reliant companies flat-footed
TWEET
HEADLINES
Founders Fund is about to close another $3B fund (TechCrunch)
Bradley Tusk, architect of Uber’s political playbook, is done raising venture dollars (Pitchbook)
VC secondary discounts narrow as primary dealmaking rebounds (Pitchbook)
Sequoia in Talks to Lead Mercury Funding at Over $3 Billion Valuation (Bloomberg)
Crypto growth equity vet targeting $500M for new fund (Pitchbook)
Venture Firm Founded by Ex-Apollo Partner Acts as Sherpa to Startups Raising Debt (WSJ)
MEME
POLL
What percentage of people you work with are Level 5 employees?
Thanks for reading this far and giving us a little bit of your attention this week.
Feel free to unsubscribe whenever this stops becoming valuable to you.
- Clay
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